VIDEO: Facebook Partners with Mississippi State

MSU CAMPUS, Miss. (WCBI) – The department of Computer Science at Mississippi State has been teaching cyber security for years.

“We offer in-phone computer security classes, classes on network security, as well as cryptography, classes on software security now,” said Associate Professor, Byron Williams.

The new partnership with Facebook comes after Williams took a class with the company Code Path.

“As I was developing a course in cyber security for my students, I actually used Code Path as a resource, and they introduced me to the program with the possibility of being a partner with Facebook in teaching the course that I was developing,” said Williams.

As a result, Mississippi State was one of only eight universities selected to teach their cyber security classes, opening more opportunities for students.

“And so now we actually have a Masters program, focused on cyber security, so students can come and get a masters degree in cyber security and operations,” said Williams. “We’ve already gotten a program approved for undergraduates of cyber security and operations program.”

Students who attended the presentation see the benefit that comes from this kind of a partnership.

“I think it’s great that Facebook is here. I think it gives a wonderful opportunity for students to be able to forge careers in cyber security,” said MSU Student, Zack Taylor. “It gives Facebook an opportunity to get a lot of young blood right out of the door, so I think it’s just great for both groups.”

“It can give them a lot more leverage for success,” said MSU Student Arkeem Gibson. “A lot of people, they really think coming out of computer science, you know, you just got to step out and become something like a coder or a grant somewhere, but with Facebook you can really take off.”

Mississippi State’s computer science is already accredited as an NSA sponsored program, but having that paired with Facebook can take students to the next level.

“Any problems that Facebook has, you know, basically any other company would have, maybe not that scale but looking at the same issue,” said Williams. “And so now if our students can be trained by resources that Facebook uses to train it’s engineers, I think it’s a huge benefit to our students but then also the companies that come in and hire students.”